JULY/AUGUST 2008 FAMILY LETTER
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Lloyd and
Nilda – No letter this month
From Darlene
and Boyd
Dear Family,
Looks like our writing vacation is
over and another letter needs to be written.
Let's see if I can remember
what's been going on here. In July there was a lot of birthdays to help
celebrate, including mine. Julie invited us to her house for dinner on a
Sunday. Joe and Amanda were there also, with Kylie. ( Did I get that name
right?) Wayne bought some birthday balloons to make it festive. I
loved it. Of course, the kids came over or called. So I had a
very good birthday.
In Aug, we went to Preston,
Id. to visit Kent and Janice'. We stayed two nights. We left here
on a Tues night after Boyd got off work so we didn't get there until around
10:00 pm. Wed we went to Soda Springs and saw a geyser that we didn't
know was there. It is piped and can only go off once every hour. It
is said that it was affecting Old Faithful, that is why it is piped and
regulated. We went to where the natural soda springs were and made some punch
with the water. I didn't like it and I don't think anyone did. But
it is said the pioneers loved it to have something a little different.
On the way home we stopped at
the SLC Cemetery to see if we could find Grandma and Grandpas
Castleton's graves. I had never been there before. We did find
them and a few more. There were a few Castletons there. I was
surprised to see so many. I took pictures and now have to match them with
our genealogy names to see who is who. We also found Pres
Hinckley, Pres McKay, and Henry Moyle. They are all together within a few
feet of each other. We couldn't get very close to Pres Hinckley because
the sprinklers were on. But I enjoyed looking and finding these people's
graves. Sounds strange doesn't it, to enjoy myself in a cemetery.
We went down to Capitol
Reef for a two day trip. We stayed in Richfield and then went on down to
the Reef the next day.It is still pretty down there no matter how many times we
go. We went the day after Labor Day.
This past weekend, Sept 6 and
7, we had Stake and regional conference. It was very good. It
originated in the Marriott Center and was broadcast to the different Stake
buildings. Pres. Boyd Packer and Pres. Uchtdorff were the main
speakers. It was a very good conference.
We are getting excited to go
to see Jim and family. We go on Oct 4th and come back on the 11th.
Our garden is doing good
right now. Lots of squash & cucumbers, some tomatoes. and the
beans did really well--I bottled 39 pints. That should last us through
the winter.
That's about it for this
time.
Lots of love,
Darlene and
Boyd
From Wayne & Loree
It has been so
long since writing the family letter, I hope I remember all the important stuff
anyway. We are glad to hear that Teresa's surgery went well and wish you
a wonderful and complete recovery. And our prayers are with Nilda and the
family with the stress of Lloyd's condition. Know that we love you
and wish we could be with you, even for just a little while. Also,
congratulations to Steve and Valerie on the birth of Stephanie Jae. She's
a beauty.
Now, on to what
has been happening in our lives. Hmmm. Not a lot in August.
Near the end of August I went down to Emmett to get my tri-monthly
haircut. It gives me a chance to be with her and Tammy for a couple of
days. We had a ball, going shopping together and just interacting.
Other than that
experience, our lives have just been trudging along as usual. The weather
was hot and dry, except for near the end of the month when we had a few days of
beautiful rain and cooling temperatures. We look forward to several days
of sunny weather now. Because of the late start here of summer our
garden is slow developing. But we are getting a few things out of there
right now. Our tomatoes are still green. We're hoping the sunny
weather will help that.
We found out this
week that the person who rents a spot for her trailer on our property
has found another home to rent. She isn't sure exactly when
she'll be leaving but thinks it will be November. She's
selling her trailer to another friend of ours who has been looking for
one. That will leave a place for a newer home for us. We have been
praying for that for several years and the Lord is finally working that out.
Saturday night
Rachel called with some bad news. Jeff's dad had a seizure on Friday at
work. Luckily, Jeff's mom was there and they got him to the
hospital. After having a CT scan they found he has a small 2 cm. tumor in
his brain. They are going to schedule him for surgery as soon as
possible. We are praying that all will go well with the surgery. He
isn't very old yet and he has been in relatively good health up until the
seizure. So they feel blessed that it happened so they could
catch the tumor before it got any larger.
Everyone else
seems to be doing well. School is back in session again. I'm so
grateful that we are past that point in our lives. If it weren't for the
grandkids, we wouldn't know exactly when school begins and ends. Rachel
is liking her job so far. She hasn't been doing it for very long so time
will tell if that changes. She is in good health. She had an
ultra sound last week and they believe it will be a girl, due to lack of boy
parts showing up.
I can't think of
anything else significant to write about. The plans for the reunion seem
to be moving ahead. We hope everyone gets their money in so we can pay
for the increased fees for the site. If you haven't yet, do it now while
you're thinking about it. We love you all and are looking forward to next
summer so we can be reunited again.
Love and hugs to everyone.
Addition:
In July Paul and
Janeen were able to go to Michael's graduation from basic training in South
Carolina. He received top gunman honors in his platoon. They took
Kevin with them but left the other two kids home. On the way home they
stopped at Mt. Rushmore. They had never been there before and enjoyed it
a lot. And now Michael is training for his work in Maryland. He
also has decided that when a year is up in the reserves he is going to change
to full time army. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
That's all of the addition. I
might add the picture to myfamily.com. I've never done that before and
not certain about doing it.
Loree
From
Elaine –
Well, it’s been an interesting few
months. I discovered a couple of weeks
ago that I was in a depression (chemical imbalance in the brain). I don’t know why I didn’t see it earlier, I
had all the old symptoms; not being able to make myself do anything, crying at
the drop of a hat, even driving the car I’d start to cry for no reason, walking
is circles and getting nothing done, spending a lot of sofa time, feeling
totally helpless and hopeless. Then one
day it dawned on me that was what was happening. I started taking some herbs and began the
ascent back to human hood. I’m quite a
bit better now and feeling like I’m coming back all the way really quick. Things don’t get me down as much as
before. It really amazes me that I
didn’t catch on to what was happening for such a long time. Looking back, it was so obvious.
Finances are still pinching, but I
have a part time job and start getting Social Security this month, so that
helps. I’m hanging in there one day at a
time. I have a part-time job! I go to different schools (they set the
appointments and tell me which ones are available and I choose) and tell the
teachers about a free program that helps them go back to school online. It’s a couple of hours each visit plus
driving. So far I’ve had to do a lot of
driving, but I think now that school is up and running, it will get closer more
often. I like it. I get to talk to people and get paid for it. What could be better?
Had a great time with Vernon this
week going to a workshop. Although the
workshop wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, the time with Vernon was well
worth it.
I’m back to teaching my
workshop. I’ve set a date in October and
starting to advertise it. I believe I’ll
be doing it at least once per month. In
addition, a friend and I are advertising an 8 week class on self-hypnosis, NLP
and EFT (tapping) beginning the 22nd. Thus far we have no one signed up but are
beginning to increase the advertising.
We’ll see what happens.
Another friend is preparing to teach
therapists Hypnosis, NLP and “brief therapy” to help them keep the clients that
are going to Hypnotherapists and Life Coaches.
She asked me if I would like to be a part of the Faculty. Oh boy, would I! So we’ll see where that goes. Since I’ve been on the herbs, their has been
more movement and hope.
Again, we’ll see, but I’ll keep
working at it.
As some of you know, I came home to
visit Lloyd a while back. It was so good
to hug him and talk to him (as brief as it was). I asked him to stay around until the Holidays
if he could and he said “wouldn’t that be nice”. After I got on the airplane, I realized that
his quality of life is not going to get better, but worse and I realized that
it may be better for him to go. As hard
as it was, I let go. I love you
Lloyd. If it’s better for you to go,
please know you have my support. Please
also know, that if you’re around at the holidays, I’ll be there to give you
another big hug. I pray for you and your
comfort regularly. I also pray for you,
Nilda and the family. I know this must
be extremely tough for you. I love you
all.
And I love you ALL,
Elaine
From Larry
and Betty
Sorry it has taken so long to write. Last Tuesday, I had a little
accident: I got my foot caught in a garden hose and fell flat on my face,
quite literally! I found out the cement is not very soft. I banged
up my right knee, hurt my right wrist, ended up with a bloodied nose and
forehead, and twisted my eyeglasses all out of shape. Kendra took me
to the doctor, who examined me and sent me to have x-rays. The
x-rays showed no broken bones,(how lucky for me). The doctor gave me
a brace for my wrist, which I am using now. It is making it hard to type
this letter; I feel like I almost am having to use the hunt and peck
system. However, It's been a week now and I am feeling a bit better.
My doctor called today to tell me he wanted me to see an ear nose and
throat specialist, just to make sure no complications will happen further down
the road. Better to be safe than sorry. I also had a ct scan; my
doctor told me it showed a small fracture on my forehead just above my nose
after all.
Enough about me. Thursday of this week, September 11, Betty is scheduled
for eye surgery to remove a cataract from her left eye. Her eye doctor is
quite confident that she will be able to see better, so she is going to go for
it, but not without reservations. She has had a Priesthood blessing, and
hopefully that has calmed her nerves somewhat. We will keep you posted on
how it all turns out.
The grandkids are back in school now, and seem to be enjoying their new
teachers and new classes. Ana is attending classes at a science school
sponsored by the University of Utah, and other sponsors I can't recall.
It is a pilot program, with hands on learning; Ana says it is awesome!
She really likes it. If the program is successful, they want to expand it
to include all grades from K-12. Right now, just the 6th, 7th and 8th
grades are being taught. Ana is in the 7th grade. And it is limited
to 60 students per grade. Ana had to apply. She got an official
letter in the mail to let her know she was accepted, which made her very, very
happy. Just a little anecdote: Ana got the very same locker her Dad
had when he went to that school when it was Northwest Intermediate. What
a coincidence! Did I tell you that the School District built a new
Northwest Middle school, so the old building became available. That is
where Ana is going now; in the old building.
I don't remember much what happened in July or August, even though this is
supposed to be about those months. We did celebrate July 4th with
Lauren's family by having a barbeque and shooting off a few fireworks. I
worked on the 24th. The grandkids were in the Children's parade this
year; it was the Saturday before the 24th. We went down as a family to
watch it; lots of fun!
Pretty much, August was spent helping the grandkids get ready for school;
shopping for clothes and school supplies. Lauren is still working on
remodeling the downstairs bathroom; this Saturday, September 13th, he is
planning to finish tiling the shower. Can't wait til it's all done and we
can use it again!
That's it for now. Can't believe the holiday season is just around the
corner once again! The grankids are already talking about what creature
they are going to be for Halloween; and school has just started. I
guess it's all the stores fault; Halloween displays along side of
Christmas decorations are already popping up in some of the stores.
Thanksgiving, I guess just gets honorable mention.
O.K! Now I am signing off! As usual, I am writing this at work; I
need to get back and earn some more money. Love you all! Looking
forward to the next family reunion, no matter how many days we can be together!
KayLub is in the 4th grade and Dean is in the 1st grade this year.
Just
an update on my falling on my face: My doctor referred me to an ear, nose
and throat specialist. I was able to get in today. While looking
into my ears, he made the comment that I had a big buildup of ear wax, and
would I like him to remove the ear wax. I told him of course. It was
amazing the big difference in my hearing. I thought I was slowly going
deaf, and even was entertaining the idea of getting a hearing test done; that
is until today. What an improvement!
Also,
he said that yes, when I fell, I fractured the bone in my sinuses just above my
nose; and the only thing to worry about was cosmetic, because I now have a
small dent in that area of my forehead. It is sort of like a baby's soft
spot. The pain has mostly gone away, though. I will go back in a
couple of months to have him look at it again.
And
Monday, September 15, I have an appointment to have my hand and wrist looked at
again by a specialist. It is still hurting, but it just may take
more time to heal. I just want a second opinion. Will keep you
posted on that, and how Betty's surgery on her eye goes; it's tomorrow.
Love,
Larry
UPDATE:
I
went to the bone specialist today; he had already looked at my other x-rays,
but still decided to have me do another cat scan. He's concerned about a
certain bone in my wrist that still hurts when pressure is applied to it.
He told me that when he gets results of the cat scan back, he will let me know
whether I will need a cast on it, or continue with the removable brace I have
now. My appointment is Wednesday. Betty also has an
appointment that day with her eye doctor. Her surgery to remove her
cateract went well, and the doctor just wants to keep his eye on her eye to
make sure everything goes as planned. She claims she can see better out
of her left eye(the one that had the cataract in it) than she can through her
right eye. That is quite encouraging for me to hear her say that.
She will still need glasses for doing things up close. Who know, sometime
down the road, she may even be able to drive the car again! She
gave up driving a long time ago because she was having trouble seeing.
She can hardly wait to get behind the wheel again! Will let you
know after Wednesday how our appointments turn out.
From Wayne
and Julie
Dear
Family,
It seems a lot has happened these past two
months. We went to Oregon for our
vacation and it was beautiful to say the least.
We traveled over to the coast of California and then went all the way up
the coast of Oregon. I did not know that
it would be so green and luscious. We
went through the Redwood Forest and it didn’t stop there. There was forest all the way up the
coast. Our destination was Seaside,
which is just south of the Washington/Oregon border. Since we were so close, we went to Washington
as well. We saw several light houses,
went to see the tide pools at low tide, walked along the beach, and just
enjoyed our time together. On Wednesday
we went to Portland to pick up Joe and Amanda and they stayed the rest of the
time with us. Joe bought a kite and had
a blast flying it on the beach. This
isn’t your typical $.25 kite. This is a
large kite that about pulled you out of your shoes.
The weather was very cool, yet very nice. Everyone wore sweatshirts, shorts and
sandals. I don’t think the temperature
got to be more than 64 degrees the whole time we were there. No body went swimming in the ocean - too
cold. We went swimming in the Condo pool
one day, but it was pretty cool. The
water was nice, but getting out it was windy and so we ran from the pool to the
hot tub. (Such a life.) That vacation was one of the best vacations
ever. We had a three-bedroom penthouse
condo on the top floor, right on the ocean front. We were in heaven. A well-deserved break from all that we went
through this past year.
After we got home, Teresa had her surgery on
her neck, which we all know about. She
is doing quite well now, but still has a long way to go. She can’t do anything physical for 8-9 more
weeks. Very frustrating, but she doesn’t
want to mess up anything the doctor has done to repair her neck, so she is
patiently waiting for that time to pass.
She has had a lot of help with Karie, Valerie and a good friend. And Mike has been the surrogate mom. I did my little bitty part by taking the kids
overnight. It was a piece of cake since
we have a swimming pool and that’s all they wanted to do all day Saturday.
Then on Labor Day Karie invited us to go to
dinner with them, a little too late as we had already had dinner. We were on our way up to see Lloyd and Nilda
so we said we would come and have dessert with them. Wayne was helping Nilda get her kitchen sink
unplugged so we missed out on dessert.
But Karie bought a pie and brought it to our house. She mentioned Jacob’s new T-shirt and I saw
that it was cute, etc. but didn’t notice what was on it. We had pie and ice cream and then we were all
sitting in the family room when I saw that Jacob’s picture was on the
shirt. I looked at it more carefully and
on the bottom it said “position filled April 2, 2009.” I looked at Karie and said “what does that
mean?” She just shrugged her shoulders. Then I read the top of the shirt and it said
“Practicing to be a big brother.” My jaw
dropped as then I knew that Karie was pregnant.
I was so excited. So our 15th
grandchild is on its way.